Assemblymember Jim Cooper with the 9th Assembly District’s 2015 Veteran of the Year Honoree Danny Mander in the Assembly Chambers.

SACRAMENTO – In a ceremony this week, Assemblymember Jim Cooper (D-Elk Grove) honored Elk Grove resident and former Winston Churchill body guard, Danny Mander as the 9th Assembly District’s Veteran of the Year. Mander was recently featured in a Sacramento Bee profile, detailing anecdotes of his historic time in military service.

“This week, the Assembly honored our most highly decorated veterans and I am proud to recognize a resident from my district with such a unique role in military history,” said Cooper.

Danny Mander, 98, is most recognized for his role as the head military officer during World War II’s Tehran Conference of 1945 with President Franklin D. Roosevelt, Soviet Premier Joseph Stalin, and Prime Minister Winston Churchill.

Mander served as a royal military police officer during the “Blitz” capturing Nazi pilots shot down in the south of England. He was also a bodyguard for General Montgomery. After the defeat of Rommel, Mander was reassigned to hunt Nazi spies embedded in the Middle East leading a counter espionage campaign that uncovered several Nazi plots leading to the end of the war.

Mander, a Royal Military Police warrant officer, was only 23 when he was put in charge of 100 military policemen at the Tehran Conference, the first strategy meeting between Roosevelt, Churchill and Stalin to plan an offensive against the Nazi’s and the Japanese. He also protected Queen Elizabeth when she was a teenage princess.

In addition to serving as Winston Churchill’s bodyguard, Mander also served as the bodyguard for British Field Marshal Bernard “Monty” Montgomery during the 1942 North African campaign to defeat German General Rommel “the desert fox”.

Mander served in South England’s “Battle of Britain”, and the Middle East including Iran, Iraq, Jerusalem, Tel Aviv, Cairo, and North Africa. He is a member of the Veterans of Foreign Wars of the US, Royal military police, British legion, and the Canadian legion.

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Assemblymember Cooper represents the Cities of Sacramento, Elk Grove, Galt and Lodi.

Originally available from https://a09.asmdc.org/press-release/cooper-honors-98-year-old-elk-grove-resident-veteran-year